Young activists mobilize against ID law

Opponents of Indiana’s law requiring voter identification at the polls usually argue it places an unfair burden on the poor, the elderly, minorities, inner-city residents and the disabled.

But some activists predict another group will be affected in November: young people and college students.

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A coalition of youth groups including Rock the Vote and the National Black Law Students Association filed an amicus brief to the Indiana state Democratic Party lawsuit urging the Supreme Court to find the law unconstitutional.

“The Indiana case has far-reaching consequences for students and other young people who move frequently, making current ID hard to come by, or who do not possess a driver's license,” wrote Alexandra Acker, executive director of the Young Democrats of America.

“It’s not something that at face value people think is overtly discriminatory,” says Matthew Segal, founder of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, which also signed the amicus brief, and a senior at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. “They don’t understand the millions of Americans who are poor and don’t have a driver's license.”

Young people are more likely to fall into that license-less category. “A lot of young people don’t have driver’s licenses,” said Tova Andrea Wang, Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive institution. “I myself didn’t have one until my late twenties, because I grew up in Manhattan.”

Wang added: “It’s also pretty racially skewed. Young blacks have ID even less.” For instance, in Milwaukee County, Wis., 74 percent of African Americans and 66 percent of Hispanics aged 18 to 24 did not have a valid driver’s license.

But even young people with driver’s licenses may face barriers. Students who leave their state to attend college do not always update their license to reflect their school address. “Registered young voters can’t vote because they have an out-of-state driver’s license,” said Indiana Young Democrats president Jason Tomsci, 25. “The law definitely puts out of state students at a disadvantage,” he said.

Out-of-state students in Ohio face the same barrier. Segal has had his ability to vote called into question by a new law there. “My driver’s license is from Illinois and I’m not going to change it for a variety of reasons,” Segal explained. “There’s no form of photo ID that I, or most out-of-state students, have that shows I live in Ohio.”

Students like Segal are often afraid to change their license to the state where they attend school because of potential financial penalties, such as complications with their health insurance coverage through their parents, or a risk of losing scholarship money from their home state.

So Segal, who has been voting in Ohio since his freshman year at Kenyon, had to cast a provisional ballot for the first time, when he voted in November 2007 local elections. “Basically every out-of-state student voted provisionally,” said Segal. “You’re never notified if that vote is counted.”

While nonpartisan youth mobilization groups and college Democrats oppose the Indiana law, the College Republicans support it, on the grounds that it will prevent voter fraud. “Voters in Indiana, and across the United States, should not be disenfranchised by people attempting to vote illegally, and that's exactly what ID laws aim to achieve,” wrote Ethan Eilon, executive director of the College Republican National Committee, in an email.

Eilon does not think that eligible students will be disenfranchised as a consequence. “Any Indiana student can get an Indiana ID by showing a photo id, or a birth certificate and some evidence of residency like a utility bill,” he noted.